Portland official blames fear of 'white supremacists' for Lyft ride faux pas — despite living in global capital of violent Antifa militants

It's bad enough that Portland City Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty has been pushing to defund the police when officers have been overwhelmed by left-wing rioters since the nation blew up over the death of George Floyd in late May.

It's bad enough that Hardesty actually called 911 on a Lyft driver who canceled her ride earlier this month after he said she was "rude and abusive" toward him, even though part of her agenda as she oversees Portland's emergency dispatch system is to pull cops from 911 calls that don't involve crimes.

But now she's blaming her fear of "white supremacists" — in a far-left city that has allowed violent Antifa militants to dominate its streets for months — for her decision to call 911.

What are the details?

Hardesty offered her take on the incident during a Portland City Council meeting Thursday, according to a KPTV-TV clip on YouTube.

"It was my responsibility to make sure I got home safe, and I did everything I could to get home safe," she said during the video session of the meeting. "When you're living in a city where white supremacists are proudly riding around in their big trucks, with their flags, and you're a black person, and somebody wants to put you on the side of the road at night? Not gonna happen."

Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty responds to Lyft incident: 'I did everything I could to get home safe'youtu.be

Hardesty presumably was referencing the Aug. 29 vehicle caravan that supporters of President Donald Trump organized in Portland — which culminated in an Antifa militant fatally shooting a pro-police, Patriot Prayer supporter in an unprovoked attack.

"He was a f***ing Nazi," a woman with a megaphone shouted during Antifa gathering in the street after the shooting. "Our community held its own and took out the trash. I'm not going to shed any tears over a Nazi."

What's the rest of the Lyft ride story?

"She was not a pleasant person," driver Richmond Frost told the Oregonian in regard to Hardesty, adding that he didn't even know who she was until after the ordeal had concluded. "That has nothing to do with her political position as a Portland council person. I'm out here doing my job. She was very disrespectful to me, made me uncomfortable. I don't feel like I have to sit in a car for anyone to have to argue unrelentingly and be rude and abusive, telling me what I have to do in my own vehicle."

On Nov. 1, Hardesty ordered a pickup from a casino resort in Washington state — and things went downhill right off the bat when there was a pickup location mixup, the Oregonian said, adding that Frost said Hardesty got angry about it.

Then the driver said as he was headed out of the casino lot, Hardesty demanded he close the windows and that she wouldn't ride with them down, the paper said, adding that the driver needed them down slightly for coronavirus safety.

"I did say, 'It's for my safety and your safety.' But that was like pouring gas on her fire," Frost recalled to the paper. "She demanded that I close that window right now. She was kind of ballistic at that point."

When Hardesty wouldn't let up, the driver told the Oregonian he took an early exit off Interstate 5 south.

"So I made a decision, it would be in the best interest for both of us to cancel the ride," Frost noted to the paper, adding that he pulled into a Chevron station.

"It's lit up like a football field. It's safe. It's warm," he told the paper. "She could order another Lyft or Uber, whatever she wants to do, and I can be done, and I can get on with my work."

But Hardesty wouldn't exit the vehicle — and called 911.

"I've got a Lyft driver that decided he would just drop me off at a filling station," Hardesty told dispatch when asked what her emergency was, according to the Oregonian, which said it obtained dispatch records through a public records request. "Well, I'm not getting out of the car, in the dark, at a filling station, not happening — all because I asked him to put the window up. I'm not leaving."

Was there violence? No. Weapons used? No.

"He says I've got to get out of his car, or he would call the police, so I decided to call for him," Hardesty added to dispatch, according to the paper.

The dispatcher told Hardesty several times the circumstance wasn't a crime but a civil matter, the Oregonian reported, adding that the vehicle was the driver's property.

But the Portland commissioner, who wants to defund the police, wanted police to respond to her, the paper said.

"I am not going to allow him to leave me at the side of the road," she told dispatch, the Oregonian reported.

Soon a police car pulled behind Frost's vehicle just as another Lyft driver arrived, the paper said.

"Peace restored and involved parties sent their separate ways," a 10:16 p.m. entry said on the dispatch report, the Oregonian noted.